The Stranger is the 13th episode of TRON: Uprising. Beck is held captive by a mysterious program and learns a dark secret about his role as Tron's mentee. Meanwhile, Able tries to investigate a secret superweapon being built by the Occupation.

Plot

Able ordered Beck to bring back some supplies from Gallium City. Beck, discovering the road blocked by a storm, decided to circle around the resulting traffic jam by going through the Outlands. He discovered a strange one-way portal, was accidentally sucked inside, and met the mysterious program who resided in the vast compressed space within. While trying to escape, he learned that he was not the first program to be mentored by Tron, and that Tron himself had imprisoned the first renegade in the compressed space upon discovering his insane plan to "free" the Grid by destroying it.

Meanwhile, Tron arrived at the garage in secret, seeking Beck's assistance in investigating a secret project headed by Dyson in Purgos. With Beck still missing, Able volunteered to assist instead, and the two uncovered the construction of a secret superweapon -- a yellow-circuited recognizer as large as the center of the city -- though not soon enough to prevent the giant craft from being finished.

After foiling the first renegade's plan and destroying his doomsday device, Beck returned to Tron's hideout, unsettled but unwilling to confront his mentor directly. He dropped hints to probe for the real reason Tron had chosen to mentor him, but Tron answered evasively, and Beck realized that Tron had never intended to tell him the truth.

Spoilers end here.

Trivia

Cyrus is the first Basic program other than Sark's Lieutenant to be portrayed with visible circuits on his skin; he mentions that his appearance hardly fits Clu's idea of perfection.